Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2023 June 4

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June 4

What is a lama flower?

I was reading something that mentioned lama flowers, so I tried to look them up. Nothing on Wikipedia. A few google results (once you filter out "llama" suggest they might actually be something that exists, but I can't find any information on them. Mostly interested in where they grow and what they look like. Anyone have any information here? -- Avocado (talk) 02:28, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

Could it be Diospyros sandwicensis? Abductive (reasoning) 02:48, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

Maybe? There wasn't a lot of detail about them in the text where I read the term (it was the description of a design on a garment). Thank you for the link! -- Avocado (talk) 03:09, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

Hm, or maybe it's a heraldry thing or something and I'm asking in the wrong place? I can only half make sense of the google translation, but the French language article about a town in Corsica called Lama [1] mentions something about it in relation to flowers... -- Avocado (talk) 03:18, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

That's a national town beautification program in France: https://www.villes-et-villages-fleuris.com. Abductive (reasoning) 04:48, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

The term "Lama Flower" is used here for Chenopodium capitatum. This is a single hit, so it is not a common common name.  --Lambiam 11:22, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

Here a dress is described as being "full trimmed with splendid lama flowers". The dress in question is called a "lama dress", apparently quite a thing in 19th-century England, as the attire of another noble lady described on the same page, as well as one two pages earlier, is also called that. A search for "lama dress" confirms this. Apparently, lama flowers only grow on lama dresses; it is not a type of flower, but a design of a flower executed in some way referred to as lama, as seen in a description of the 1816 wedding dress of Princess Charlotte: "The Wedding Dress, composed of a most magnificent silver lama, on net, over a rich silver tissue slip, with a superb border of silver lama embroidery at the bottom, forming shells and bouquets; above the border a most elegant falling, tastefully designed, in festoons of rich silver lama, and finished with a very brilliant roleau [sic] of lama."^[2] After much searching I found a definition in The Century Dictionary :

lama³ (lä′mä), n. [Sp., gold or silver cloth, a particular use of lama, plate: see lame³, lamina.]
   1. A rich material made in Spain in the fifteenth century, described as a cloth of silver shaded and watered.
            A dress of silver lama, over French lilac.
                        Armitage, Old Court Customs, p. 36.
   2. A similar stuff of modern manufacture. See lama d’oro, below. Spanish Arts (S. K. Handbook ).—Lama d’oro, a silk stuff interwoven with threads or flat strips of gold, especially of a kind made in Italy.

The 19th-century sense would have been the "similar stuff of modern manufacture", but apparently not only lama d'oro but also lama de plata.  --Lambiam 12:33, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

Aha! Mystery solved. Thank you, @Lambiam! Now to see if there's any source that will describe what they actually looked like -- but I suspect this is not the venue for that. -- Avocado (talk) 13:40, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

Isn't this just Lamé (fabric)? Here are some lamé flowers. (I use the acute accent advisedly.)  Card Zero  (talk) 16:46, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

Yeah, I'm familiar with lamé. "Lama" looked like it could have a different meaning; and my understanding had been that lamé didn't exist in the period in question (possibly due to a misreading of our cloth of gold article? The distinction between the two isn't entirely clear to me; or perhaps lamé is a subset of cloth of gold? What distinguishes it from other types?). -- Avocado (talk) 16:51, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

Delta ray effects

What would the effects of loose delta rays interacting with matter be? For example, would delta rays going through organic matter cause damage like other radiation? Edward-Woodrow :) _[talk] 17:45, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

It is basically a name for Beta rays produced as a side effect off other radiation, so that article should say what you want. NadVolum (talk) 18:45, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

The energy of a delta electron (or "secondary electron") is typically much lower than that of an electron emitted by beta decay, but still enough to potentially cause damage; see Ionizing radiation § Beta particles.  --Lambiam 23:55, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

We have a delta ray article (obviously:). It speaks to Lambiam's point, as having "sufficient energy to ionize further atoms through subsequent interactions on their own". DMacks (talk) 21:25, 5 June 2023 (UTC)

Thank-you all for your responses. Edward-Woodrow :) _[talk] 21:27, 5 June 2023 (UTC)

Climate questions

1. Are there any places in North America with Dfd, Dwd or Dsd climates? Why does North America have less severe winters than places at similar latitude in Siberia?
2. Are there any places in Europe with Cw or Dw climates?
3. Are there any places in South America where average low temperature if coldest month is under -10° C?
4. Which is coldest city in Poland?

--40bus (talk) 20:00, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

Presumably your alphabet soup is referring to coding in Köppen climate classification. I note that much of Alaska is in the same zone and code designation as much of Siberia is. The lower 48 have the relatively warming factor of the Pacific to the west, which Siberia does not. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 20:55, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

1) Yes, some parts of Alaska, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories have these climates (mainly at higher elevations and not too far from the coast).

2) No, because the high humidity coming in from the Atlantic at all seasons pretty much precludes a dry season of any kind.

3) Only at high altitudes in the Andes, if at all -- because most of South America outside the tropics is near the sea, winter temperatures (outside the high Andes) never go down very low.

4) From the partial info I found so far, that would be a tie between Danzig and Belostok, both of which have an annual mean temperature of 7.7 C.

2601:646:9882:46E0:989D:AD1C:1D66:1004 (talk) 03:59, 5 June 2023 (UTC)

Large parts of Europe have a dry season, but that's summer: Mediterranean climate.

Zakopane, a ski resort in the Tatra mountains, must be one of the coldest cities in Poland. Yearly average 6.2°C, climate type Dfb. PiusImpavidus (talk) 08:42, 5 June 2023 (UTC)